Wellingborough MP Peter Bone used a speech at the Rutland Biz Club to urge Theresa May to quit as party leader to help break the Brexit deadlock.

The MP spoke at The Rutland Biz Club’s annual St George’s Day lunch, held at the George Hotel in Stamford on Friday 25 April.

He warned attendees that if Theresa May continues as Prime Minster there is a risk, come the 31 October, that she will go back to Brussels and sign for another extension which would be wrong for the country as it would destroy democracy and kill the Conservative Party. He is backing Boris Johnson to succeed her as leader.

He said: “The PM said 108 times in public that we’d come out of the EU on the 29 March. She also said it many times in private and we believed her. When that didn’t happen, she signed away an extension until 31 October which no one in Parliament has had a chance to vote on. If anyone said it’s Parliament that extended Article 50 it’s not, it’s down entirely to the PM signing a letter and going to Brussels.”

He traced the failure to exit the EU to the sense of victory and a job well done by the Leave campaign after the 2016 referendum. “The Leave campaign made a mistake when we won the referendum. We thought we had won and there was nothing more to do. Leave stopped campaigning but Remain did the opposite and went into overdrive.”

The MP said he was backing Boris Johnson to succeed Theresa May, but he will support whoever the Conservative grassroots members elect.

Biz Club President Geoffrey Pointon said: “It was very fitting that we heard a defence of democracy at The Biz Club lunch to celebrate St George’s Day which is celebrated with quintessentially English traditions. A great time was had by all with a superb lunch and a singalong of traditional old favourite tunes.”

The Biz Club meets on the third Friday of each month for a lunch at The Falcon Hotel in Uppingham, with a visiting speaker to encourage enterprise and stimulate dialogue between politicians and business people. For more information visit www.thebizclub.co.uk